Biography of Lewis Carroll

Lewis Carroll, formal name Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, was born on January 27, 1832 at Daresbury parsonage in Cheshire, England. As the son of Charles Dodgson, Archdeacon of Richmond Cathedral, he was the third of eleven children.

Although his father, a distinguished classical scholar, held a tradition of service to the Church, his mother did the same with the State. Frances Jane Lutwidge, a first-cousin of Carroll's father, was a gentle and sweet woman which descended upon her son.

At the age of eleven, Carroll's family moved to Croft Rectory near Darlington. It was there that Lewis entertained his brothers and sisters with elaborate games in the garden; including poetry, stories and drawings, but most notably a series of illustrated manuscript magazines, which the first, Useful and Instructive Poetry (written while just thirteen), included anticipations of Humpty Dumpty and of the Mouse's tail in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

After educated at Rugby and Christchurch College, Oxford, where he excelled in mathematics and photography (particularly of little girls), Carroll became a lecturer and remained so for most of his life.

Some modern biographies suggest Lewis Carroll to be obsessed with little girls, while others say his mind was too "simple hearted" and such suggestion would be absurd.

Carroll met Alice Liddell, whom the stories are inspired by, the daughter of Dr H. G. Liddell, the formidable Dean of Christ Church on April 25, 1856 when she was just three years old. Although Carroll himself has suggested the books were nonsense, scholars have hinted satiric and symbolic meanings.

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Lewis Carroll died on January 14, 1898 and was buried in a simple grave at Mount Cemetery, Guildford.

Carroll is also the author of several light limericks including The Hunting of the Snark.